Beware Best Buy Computer Price Hikes

Donald says Best Buy is sticking it to uninformed customers by advertising computers at higher than regular prices and passing them off as great deals without quite calling them sales.

He writes:

Best Buy has been doing something sort of tricky lately on their laptop pricing. Each week, advertised prices on a number of laptops are higher than regular pricing.

In this week’s ad, there is a Dell, sku 9693191, for $649.99. Regular price is $629.99. An HP, sku 9705373, is advertised for $699.99; regular price is $649.99. Last week, a Toshiba, sku 9705221, was advertised for $499.99, this week it’s back to regular price, $479.99. Likewise, a Dell, sku 9693191, was advertised for $649.99 last week, and this week it’s back to its regular price of $629.99.

This is certainly legal, because nowhere is the word sale used. The ad doesn’t say that the price is reduced, and the in store signage just says As Advertised. Still, it appears that they are attempting to gouge the uninformed.

I’ve always found Best Buy competitive on computer pricing, which makes Donald’s discovery all the more alarming.